garlicGöblin

I’m quite sure there was a door there!

[garlicGöblin @mamckee80]

@LuckyMcGee 1-3 yes! I would have to add the big lebowski and Jackie Brown (good tunes in both of those too!)

[The Real Mike Rowe @mikeroweworks]

A couple years ago, Mikala Sposito applied for a work ethic scholarship from my foundation. She asked for $2,700.00 to help realize her dream of becoming a welder. (Actually, her first dream was to become an Olympian. As a kid, she excelled at horseback riding, dance, soccer, and track, but not quite at the Olympic level. So, Mikala adjusted her dream and focused on something within her reach. Precisely the kind of commonsense approach to making a living we try to encourage.) Toward that end, Mikala filled out the application, jumped through all the necessary hoops, and signed the S.W.E.A.T. Pledge, as all applicants must.

According to our internal ranking system, which is inherently subjective and relative to each batch of new applicants, Mikala scored a 94, and was awarded $2,100.00, or roughly 80% of what she asked for. This is typical of the average percentage awarded to an excellent applicant. As a rule, we almost never award the entire amount requested. We want our recipients to have some skin in the game, and we encourage all applicants to apply for additional scholarship funds elsewhere, which Mikala did. But in this case, if I had it to do over again, I think I’d have awarded Mikala the full $2,700.00. Why? Because this woman is precisely why I award work ethic scholarships in the first place, as recent headlines prove. Headlines all over the country that identify Mikala Sposito as the sole welder to represent Team USA in the upcoming @WorldSkills Competition in Shanghai.

This is a very big deal. The World Skills competition is often referred to as the Olympics of the skilled trades, so it looks like Mikala’s dream is coming true after all. And it seems to me her journey is worth a brief encapsulation. Before she applied for a scholarship from mikeroweWORKS, Mikala demonstrated an affinity for welding in SkillsUSA. As a senior at Dexter High School, she won 1st Place at the SkillsUSA Michigan high school competition and went on to place 14th nationally. Then, as a freshman at Washtenaw Community College, she repeated her success by taking 1st Place in the Michigan college division. She then advanced to nationals, where she finished 8th in the country. That earned her an invitation to the Team USA pre-trials, which whittled the nation's top 16 young welders down to three. At the final USA Weld Trials at the Robotics Technology Park in Huntsville, Alabama, each competitor was evaluated on precision, safety, technical execution, craftsmanship, and multi-process capabilities under extreme time constraints. Mikala Sposito took the Gold, officially becoming the first woman to represent the United States in welding at WorldSkills. Next week, she’ll face off against the absolute best of the best from all over the world.

I should point out that Mikala would prefer it if the press didn’t make a big deal of her gender, and I completely understand. (She’s a welder – not a “weld-her.”) But today, the industry is in desperate need of proof that women can and do excel in the trades. Nationally, just 4.3% of tradespeople are female. At mikeroweWORKS, our female applicants are closer to 20%, but I assure you that percentage could be much higher. Companies are anxious to recruit talented welders of any gender, and women need to understand and believe the opportunities are real. Mikala prove that in spades, and I want to offer her my sincere congratulations, and invite all of you to do the same. Because Mikala Sposito is exactly what our country needs a lot more of. People who understand that talent is never enough to compensate for laziness.

In her application, she wrote, “Hard work beats talent any day of the week, and nobody is going to outwork me. Period.”

She also connected with every point of the S.W.E.A.T. Pledge but said the final tenet resonated with her the most. “Some people choose to be lazy. Some people choose to sleep in. I choose to work my butt off.”
My favorite quote, however, is Mikala’s response to seasoned professionals who see her wield a torch and call her a “natural.”

“I’m not a natural,” she says. Far from it. And none of this came easy. I worked and trained 60-80 hours a week for two years to get here.”

Regardless of what happens in Shanghai, the job offers are already piling up, including the most recent from SpaceX. She hasn’t graduated yet, but the future looks bright, and I for one would not bet against her.

PS. I never do this, but since my name is in the title of the foundation, I suppose I can. Mikala – please accept the additional $600 you requested from mikeroweWORKS two years ago. Shanghai is expensive, and since you’re representing all of us, we’d like to provide you with a little walking around money. The check is in the mail.

Now…go get the gold!

[garlicGöblin @mamckee80]

@BrandonDonkey2 I hope you have no troubles with tribbles!

[garlicGöblin @mamckee80]

@ShamashAran My sister died from a kayak accident & I latched on to the closest retard with nothing better to do that drink with me. I was laid off most of that summer and pretty much blew through my savings account as such. Good times.

[garlicGöblin @mamckee80]

On spacebook, folks are concerned about the cute groundhogs being well fed. On twitter? We share our triumphs.

[garlicGöblin @mamckee80]

@AJamesMcCarthy Kitty!

[garlicGöblin @mamckee80]

I saw your post this morning about that lil pup, and I don’t have good words. It’s tough to raise a litter. Tougher than anyone will tell you about.
USUALLY, a failure to thrive is in the first 3-4 weeks. It can happen anytime, and you won’t know why, no test gives you a definitive reason (so you assume it’s your fault)
It’s also why I can’t be a breeder, 1 heartbreak is too much.
Your tiny sweet angel is living it up with all the tiny sweet angels.
It’s nothing you did or didn’t do, they just weren’t meant for this world.
(I’m sure you named her, Clover is forever in my heart at 6 weeks)

[garlicGöblin @mamckee80]

@tweetajanuary I mean, I guess it depends on how much extra weight your senior dog is carrying? I have a special 3 year old that he gets a good mix of canned & kibble for dinner, day 7 is quite the strike!

[garlicGöblin @mamckee80]

@LuckyMcGee Shit! I don’t have a basement to check 😞

[garlicGöblin @mamckee80]

I took this before chancing a slide dahn the bank, wasn’t sure about the green porch lights.

[garlicGöblin @mamckee80]

I’m no @AJamesMcCarthy, but when you see an opportunity… you take it!

iPhone 17 pro max at 10:40p

[garlicGöblin @mamckee80]

@LuckyMcGee Carl, whom she met on the street, supposedly. She was the absolute best of us, and is already missed.

[garlicGöblin @mamckee80]

@DeTocqueville14 My closest neighbor is a cornfield this year. Are the skunks I smell just them smoking stankass weed?

[garlicGöblin @mamckee80]

@braxton_mccoy My guy. Come on out to pennsyltucky.

[garlicGöblin @mamckee80]

@LuckyMcGee Samsies. Dolly is a league above all the rest. Such a beautiful soul, that one.

[garlicGöblin @mamckee80]

@LuckyMcGee It’s finally cooled off to the low 80’s here.. pretty tolerable now 🥴

[Stocking Mill Ohio @StockingMillOH]

Looks like our new headquarters will be in Barberton Ohio.

Cafe and roast shop….hopefully with baked goods as we do have commercial ovens.

There will be very nice guest quarters upstairs for SMC family visiting from out of town.

Follow this account for all updates.

[Royce White 🇺🇸 @Highway_30]

What's really fun about being me… I don't give a f*** what people think. Y’all don’t get it, I really don’t. Once you come to the unfortunate realization that 54% of American citizens read below a 6th grade level, it's easy to just do you. Then account for all the drugs and TDS, it’s zombies all the way down. Let go, you become immeasurably more powerful and grateful. I see people tell these lies, the mainstream media, I literally laugh. Like if you go to Google and regurgitate the 1st thing you find, you're low IQ.

For example, here’s a great lie… I’ve flown for every basketball league I’ve been a part of. Why do people keep saying I can’t fly?

High School (DelaSalle & Hopkins) ✈️
AAU (Howard Pulley & NIKE) ✈️
College (Iowa State University) ✈️
Houston Rockets ✈️
Philadelphia 76ers ✈️
Sacramento Kings ✈️
NBL Canada ✈️
BIG 3 ✈️

So it just gives me so much secondhand embarrassment to see people throw that out there. Tell us you’re a lemming without telling us. It tells me you’re lazy and gullible, a deadly combination. I prefer to drive, I don’t like to fly but I have and I can.

Why don’t I like to fly?

- The thought of dying in a heaping ball of fire when on most days, as I mentioned above, half the people on the plane read below a 6th grade level terrifies me. Even if it’s a low probability, I like to make that one an impossibility when I can. Personally I’d rather get creamed by a semi going the wrong way on the interstate. Then die with libtards on a plane.

- TSA sucks! They’re rude, ghetto and ineffective.

- Driving is awesome, you get to see the country up close, I’ve been to every state twice and you get to bring all the fun toys.

- Too many pilots took the jab, don’t trust their judgment.

- My legs are long and people are fat as hell.

Yes, as President Ground Force 1 sounds cool as hell and all the international dignitaries would come to me. What the hell are we flying to see them for? We pay all the bills? Make us a sandwich foreigners.

Royce White for President
America 1st,
I Say What You’re All Thinking

[garlicGöblin @mamckee80]

I had to spend my weekend drinking back up coffee. I’m ordering better so I can have coffee the way God intended.
It has nothing to do with lavender or oat.

[Stocking Mill Coffee @smcroasters]

You mean Lavender (water and oats as the base, combined with oils like rapeseed or sunflower oil for creaminess, dipotassium phosphate to prevent separation, sea salt for flavor, and added vitamins and minerals like calcium carbonate and vitamin D2.) Latte?

[Stocking Mill Coffee @smcroasters]

Building inspection went pretty well and looks like we are moving ahead in Barberton Ohio.

Few things need to be worked out but think they will be.

So starting to envision turning the building into our new headquarters.

Left is currently what building looks like and right is concept drawing.

Little work on the outside entrance area, sign painted on brick, Phalanx CIWS mounted on roof, and Nick’s Suby parked out front for scale….

Going to reinforce roof in back for hello pad so high caff shipments won’t be slowed down or stopped on way from port.